Aaron exclaimed wordlessly and I had to admit, I wasseriously impressed. I'd seen some crazy stuff in my time, but most of it wasso off the cuff, even my own magic. Mal's efforts were so precise andcontrolled. Everything proceeded exactly as he had detailed, and he intoned thelast of the incantation. Then all three of us called out Sabian's full name.
"Sabianamon," we called in unison threetimes.
At the last utterance of his name, all of the candlesflared brightly then went out.
"Fuck," I growled as soon as my visioncleared. There was no naked, or even clothed, incubus in our circle. Thesummoning had gone exactly right. Even having never done one before, I somehowinstinctively knew that it should have worked.
"What's that?" Aaron pointed at a red ovalobject that had appeared in the middle of the circle.
Mal grabbed me before I could cross the circle, hisarms tight around me. "Wait a minute," he whispered. "Let's makesure it's not some sort of trap first."
"Sabian wouldn't send a trap," I argued, notfighting against Mal. There was no way I could win that one anyway, and he wasright even though I objected.
"No, but if Sabian wasn't in some sort oftrouble, he would have answered our summons. He wants to be here, and even ifhe didn't, that ritual would have called him without some sort of powerfulinterference."
I sighed, taking a deep breath, and turning my head soI could bury my face in his shoulder for a minute.
Mal focused his energy and attention completely on me,doing that thing he did that made me feel like the center of his world. Imelted a little, though my heart still clenched at our failure.
Mal kissed my neck. "Let's do a reveal spell onit." His breath tickled my skin and I shivered in reaction.
"Okay."
The vampire released me and stepped back. I studiedthe object that had appeared in the middle of my protective circle. It lookedlike a rock. That, more than anything, made me think it was from Sabian. He'dgiven me a desert rose–a barite crystal–not long before I'd accidently sent himback to hell.
This rock looked more like a flattened sphere, and wasa deep orangish red, but I couldn't tell more than that in the low light. Allof the candles had melted to nothing in the last flare of energy and the onlylight we had was the low light from the lamps.
"Want to flip on the light for my poor humangrade eyeballs?"
Mal did so, not commenting on my quip. I had to standthere blinking in the harsh overhead light for a moment or two before I couldsee again.
The brighter lights revealed that the stone wastranslucent and polished. It was beautiful and I had to blink a few tears outof my eyes. I'd rather have Sabian, but this was a nice gift. What did it mean?
After I'd studied the smooth crystal for a few momentsI went over and grabbed some incense off of my workbench and lit it.
As soon as it was burning properly, I blew the flameout then went over to the circle and waved the smoke toward the stone as thewords to the reveal spell sprang to my lips.
The smoke drifted in an unnatural line toward theobject of my spell and settled around it, swirling then dissipating. If therehad been anything nefarious about the stone, or even friendly, the smoke wouldhave clung to it and then I could have investigated further.
I glanced at Mal for his opinion and he nodded, so Icrossed the circle and scooped up the rock.
It was warm to the touch, about the size of my palm,and fit very comfortably in my hand. I traced my fingers over the smooth topbefore flipping it over and seeing something etched in the bottom. I ran myfingers over the grooves. The markings were some sort of symbol.
I came out of the circle and showed it to Mal andAaron.
"It's a word, I think," Mal said. "Idon't know what it says, though."
"Yeah, no idea," Aaron replied. "But itdoes look like a word."
Sagging, I might have collapsed to the floor indespair, but Aaron put his arms around me, and I leaned back against his solidwarmth.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sureit doesn't say 'leave me alone,'" Mal said, brushing his knuckles along mycheek. "This is one word. Best guess, he's asking for help, but I have noidea what we can do."
"What about your demon prince?" Aaronsuggested. "Can he help? Sabian is his subject, or whatever. Right? He'llwant to get the incubus out of trouble I would hope."
"I got no idea how to contact him in hell,"I answered. "And we can't summon him without some sort of prettysignificant sacrifice. I love Sabian, but I'm not going there."
"He wouldn't want you to," Mal agreed. "So,that's the next step. Figure out how to contact Ezra."
"So, this might be off the wall, but isn't thatwhat séances are for?" Aaron asked.
Mal and I glanced at each other, eyebrows raised.
"Now, there's an idea," Mal said slowly,thinking while he talked. "Not exactly, but maybe we could do somethinglike that."
I frowned, something tugging at my memory. Somethingfrom one of my older occult books. Nothing like Mal's collection, but I had afew gems I'd come across over the years and I went over to my bookshelf and grabbedthe book I was thinking of. I flipped it open and scanned the pages until Ifound what I was looking for.
It was a communication across the planes spell,probably intended for the very thing Aaron had suggested, but maybe we couldadapt it somehow. I showed it to Mal.
Aaron looked over our shoulders. "Is that Latin?"
"Yeah, mate."
Mal ran his fingers down the text, muttering under hisbreath as he studied the incantation.
"You know Latin?" Aaron gave me a surprisedlook.
"Yeah. I'm fluent in Latin. I know
